Here are the lyrics that I have. They go with the second part of the melody. If there are lyrics for the first part of the melody, I have never seen them. A lot of people think that this is an old Middle Eastern folksong, but it was a popular song, written in 1941, by R.N. Roubanis. Harry James had a hit with it in 1941, Jan August(xylophonist) had a hit in 1951, and Leon Berry (Organist) had a hit in 1953. All of them were instrumentals. Xavier Cugat also played the song, while people danced the Rhumba.

This very old song is claimed by the Greeks and by Hasidic and Sephardic Jews, but may be Lebanese-Arabic in origin. A fine rendition is in the Kantikas para syempre folder (select) of this website, MP3. Many Sephardic, Greek and other songs: Sephardic Music

The first popular record album I ever bought (1940?) contained this song, sung by Carol Bruce (18185A, Decca Album). I played it continuously, wearing out both album and needle.

Far off in the desert, Bronzed by the hot sun I once knew a girl. Her name is Miserlou; Everyone there knows her well. I will never forget that beautiful princess.

It's quiet, the evening cools, And I want to pour out my feelings So that she knows I love her only. If only she would love me, I would give my life to her.

Oh alas, it is hard for me, Oh, how can I say it, tearfully I swear to you: Desert princess, I can't forget you, Come heal my longing, Only you can heal me.

My Miserlou, girl from the Orient, The look in your eyes has scorched my heart. My heart is ailing, I see you in my dreams, Dance for me, oh lovely one, Spin round and round!

Desert princess, I can't forget you, Come heal my longing, Only you can heal me. My eastern bloom, Miserlou.This page attributes the Yiddish lyrics to Miriam Kressyn. See this site for information about Kressyn and her husband Seymour Rexite, "the Yiddish Crooner":

At the height of his popularity in the 1940s and '50s, Yiddish crooning sensation Seymour Rexite starred on 18 half-hour radio shows a week. At its outset his career comprised an all-Jewish repertoire that spanned from liturgical song to Yiddish popular music. But when he took to the Yiddish airwaves, the bill of fare diversified. Whatever song happened to be popular on American radio, his wife, Miriam Kressyn, translated into Yiddish and Rexite sang on one of his shows. He feared nothing, sang everything, and stayed on the air for the better part of five decades.

Wow - to find Misirlou a subject on Mudcat! I was weaned on this and other such songs. Every Greek (of every age) knows it.It was introduced in Greece in the late 30's/early 40's; but the tune is not Greek. Nor Sephardic, I think. Arabic, definitely; Lebanese, probably.

I think we've come up with circumstantial evidence to prove WillH wrong about this being originally a pop song written in 1941. The Great Song Thesaurus says "Misirlou" was published in 1947, with words and music by Milton Leeds, Fred Wise, and R.N. Roubanis. Who Wrote That Song says the English words were by Fred Wise, Milton Leeds, and S.K. Russell; with music by N. Roubanis - popularized by Jan August. I think we still have much to learn about the actual origin of this song, although this page (click) seems very credible. -Joe Offer-

Mandolirium credits Nicholas Roubanis for the song saying their version was inspired by Harry Saroyan's exceptional and highly recommended rendition. My brother Russ sings the following version on the Mandolirium CD.

Misirlou

Desert shadows creep across purple sand Travelers kneel in prayer by their caravan They're following the light of an eastern star I see my long lost love at Shalomar

Oh Misirlou You're the moon and the sun, fairest one!

All temple bells Are ringing across the land Heaven will guide us As we go hand and hand We'll find our Kismet Answering love's command.

This pagesounds very credible, but I wish it would cite its sources. I guess I'll post the entire text of what it says:

"Misirlou"

Music by Nicholas Roubanis English words by Fred Wise, Milton Leeds and S.K.Russell Spanish words by J. Pina

Contrary to popular belief, Dick Dale did not write "Misirlou" (or "Miserlou," as it's also spelled). And it's not strictly a middle Eastern number, unless you stretch the definition to include southeastern Europe. "Misirlou" is, in fact, an Americanization of a traditional Greek song known as Ìéóéñëïý [unintelligible, even with a Greek font]. The dance that goes along with this song was also Americanized in "Zorba the Greek" and became the rage of parties for several years after the film's release (I can remember my parents going to a special party dedicated to mastering the dance).

"Misirlou" was published in sheet music form by Nicholas Roubanis in the mid-1930s. Roubanis was a musical scholar who published a book on the liturgy of the Greek Orthodox Church, but various sources also credit Milton Leeds, Fred Wise, Jose Rina, and others. It was a popular number for light classical pianists. Jan August had his first and biggest hit with the tune in the late 1940s, but it was also a hit for sweet band leader Wayne King.

Dick Dale adopted the tune as a virtuouso guitar piece when he began to perform for the southern California beach crowd in the late 1950s. Dale has said his guitar style was influenced by the music he heard played in Armenian families he grew up with. "Misirlou" was already well-established as an exotica standard by then, but either inspiration is credible.

I guess I could buy that, that Nicholas Roubanis Americanized a traditional Greek dance tune.

Roubanis is(was?) Greek-American. He never claimed to have been the originator of the song, garnering it from his heritage, revising the music into the popular song of the 40s (labelled on my old bakelite red label Decca, "Miserlou" (N. Roubanis, F. Wise, M. Leeds and K. Russell), Victor Young Orch.). Words are those posted by WillH near the top of this thread. The flip side is another remake, "Red Moon of The "Caribees,"" which is based on "Cancion del Mar," by Jose Sabre Marroquin. The Bruce album also has "The Lamp of Memory," based on "Incertidumbre," originally by Gonzalo Guriel but redone by Al Stilman. A lot of this revision has been done to make foreign songs more palatable or interesting for North Americans. Who can forget the Hadjidakis song "Ta Pedia Ton Pirea," (The Children of Piraeus), which became "Never On Sunday" with its content and message completely changed.

DAMN, but that was good! Used to do this with a group a few years ago but they always pitched it too high for me so that the "operatic" singer could do her big top notes. The one on the Zemerl site was just right. Just a joy to sing again.

Thanks, MTed. Found several references to its Middle Eastern scale, but you have explained it. More trivia- Carol Bruce (Shirley Levy) first starred in "Louisiana Purchase," a 1940 musical by Irving Berlin. One of her last roles was in "WKRP in Cincinnati."

Roubanis et al. put out the modern popular "Miserlou" in 1941, not 1947, as mentioned by Joe for Great Song Thesaurus.

When played in D, the Makam Hijaz is actually called Makam Shahnaz--the proper name for it it in C is Makam Hijaz Kar, in G it is Makam Shadd Arban, and in A it is Makam Suzidil--Makams tend to be a combination of tetrachords(four consecutive notes), with different interval patterns having different names--and this makam is consists of two Hijaz tetrachords(Hijaz has the pattern halfstep-step and a half-halfstep), one starting on the fundamental, D, and one starting on the dominant, A--In Arabic music, the Eb tends to be played a bit higher and the F# a bit lower so the 1 1/2 step interval is softened slightly.

A kind of funny thing is that, though Middle Eastern melodies often use a slightly different makam ascending and descending, Miserlou does not--Hijaz is one of the most commonly used tetrachords, though, so it seems natural that Miserlou, which uses two of them, would be one of the most popular songs-

The lyrics hardly seem like Greek love poetry to me,Q--more like Tin Pan Alley. Many foreign language songs have had new lyrics written for them--usually because the original lyrics lacked the snappy glibness or simple emotions that make a song a "Popular Hit"--

Anyway, I've heard this song performed many times by Middle Eastern and Balkan bands in clubs, at Church Festivals, for regular dancing and belly dancing, etc and never heard anyone sing the lyrics. I've also played it a lot over the years, since every Balkan and Middle Eastern musician knows it, and never, at a party, a jam, or even at Balkan Music Camp, had anyone sing it--

Misirlou, Never on Sunday, etc. [VERY long]

From EEFC list

Excerpted from the 1994 Folk Dance Problem Solver, (c) Ron Houston and the Society of Folk Dance Historians. Sorry it's so long, even without the instructions and lyrics, but some stories should not be abbreviated. Please note that the block quote and footnotes formatting do not appear here and that others provided many significant words. --Ron ------------------------------ MISIRLOU (me-zir-loo) = my unhappy one [according to the author, who probably knew better but didn't want to confuse the listening public]

BACKGROUND: "Is Misirlou Greek?" "Well, a Greek-American re-choreographed the Cretan prototype, making it Greek by parantage and early development. Another Greek-American selected music which was written by a Greek, making it Greek by design and by marriage. And Greeks around the world and especially in Buffalo, New York have taken it as their own, making it Greek by adoption." "Okay, it's Greek!" "But it wasn't created in Greece! And those students weren't creating a product of Greek culture! And the music has absolutely nothing to do with Greece. Just read the words! It isn't a Greek Syrto, it's a Latin Beguine with an Arabian theme!" "Okay, it's not Greek!" Seriously though, the question of whether Misirlou is Greek or recreational, folk or popular, or meritous or not depends on the use to which you put it and on your definitions of "Greek" and "folk." So I suggest we call Misirlou a Greek dance for purposes of classification, but not for purposes of description. That way, you can locate this dance description through a search for Greek dances, read the background, and decide for yourself.

ORIGIN OF MISIRLOU: Quoting Brunhilde Dorsh (no, she's not Greek): [quote] In the year 1945, the Duquesne University Folk Dancers, a group of girls who shared my enthusiasm for dancing, were asked to participate in a music-and-dance program to honor America's allies of World War II. The program was titled: "Music and Dance of Poland, Greece, Chechoslovakia and Jugoslavia" and was arranged by the Tuesday Musical Club of Pittsburgh. I knew no Greek dances, but the girls in their quick and enterprising way discovered two girls on the campus who were of Greek background: Patricia Mandros and Mercine Nesotas. Both knew something about Greek folk dances and Pat could play the piano. (We had no records at that time.) Before long we had learned the Hasapikos and Kritikos. However, Pat had no piano music for the Kritikos, apparently it was not as popular in Pittsburgh as other Greek dances. In desperation one day, she brought with her and gave to me a copy of "Misirlou" - an Arabian Serenade by Roubanis. She suggested that this music would come as close to the right kind of music as anything she could find, and so we adapted the dance to this tune. When we first performed this dance as "Kritikos" on the above mentioned program at Stephen Foster Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh on March 6, 1945, I carefully explained to the audience that the dance had been adapted. After the program the girls, who had learned to like the dance very much, suggested using it as a "theme dance" on other programs and demonstrations, and thus it began to move off-campus and into the larger folk dance world. Monty Mayo, leader of the Community Folk Dance Group of Pittsburgh at that time, introduced it in New York. Michael Herman first listed it in his catalogue, Standard F-9044, a "Pittsburgh Greek," and eventually suggested calling it "Misirlou" to avoid confusion with the genuine Kritikos. The dance was first notated by Mimi Kirkell and Irma Schaffnit in their book: Partners All, Places All, E.P. Dutton and Company, 1949. I introduced this dance at Oglebay Park camp during the Labor Day weekend of 1948. I was delighted to find this dance enjoyed by the Oglebayites and by the folk dancers elsewhere. As the dance has gone its way, interesting "folk lore" has attached itself. For example, the Girl Scouts in this area call it the "Snake Dance." A student at Duquesne, who had never seen the title of this dance in print, once wrote me for information concerning the availability of this record and referred to this dance as "Misery Lou." We still get a good laugh out of that and at times refer to it that way ourselves. Here endeth then, the story of Misirlou. [quote]

BUT THE STORY CONTINUETH, BRUNHILDE:

Anne Pittman learned Misirlou at Oglebay and introduced it to Southern California in the early 1950s, and this Beguine lilted along, changing but little. In the late 1950s, the Armenian community of Southern California either adopted or inspired the linked-little-fingers handhold, set the dance to Armenian renditions of that Latin Misirlou, and inspired a new family of dances, the Armenian Miserlou (see page 1 of this book).

ORIGIN OF MISIRLOU VARIATIONS / HASAMISU / NEVER ON SUNDAY: Art Schrader observed "A circle dance from Greece as done by the Youth Group in the Greek Orthodox Church in Buffalo," and presented the resultant Syrto at Oglebay Institute, 1955 and at an unspecified Pittsburgh Camp. Although he used Liberty Record 17-B, Panagiositsa, a Syrto with Helen Yianakakis singing, the dance is identical to Misirlou and Misirlou Variations.

MISIRLOU HITS THE BIG-TIME: In 1960, Never On Sunday became the first foreign song to win an Academy Award and spent 14 weeks on the Top Ten list, inspiring in 1967 the musical Illya Darling with new lyrics by Joe Darion, and yet more lyrics by Billy Towne in 1968. And what does this have to do with Misirlou? Well, Bob Wischnick (or Wiechnick), formerly of Wheeling, West Virginia, learned Misirlou from Buffalo-area Greeks (sound familiar?), allegedly added two Hasapiko-like variations to the Misirlou step, called it Hasa Misu, and set it to Never On Sunday. The name, perhaps derived from Hasapiko and Misirlou, later became Hasamisu and was said to represent the "real" Greek dance from which Misirlou was derived. Whether Art Schrader or Bob Wischnick/Wiechnick "discovered" Misirlou Variations really doesn't matter now, since they both learned from the same source, that Greek Orthodox community in Buffalo. By the way, our Greek Orthodox friends here in Austin translated hasamisu as a rude phrase meaning "Go engage in sexual intercourse with yourself." When you stop laughing, consider this: unless Buffalo Greeks or Bob W. perpetrated the name as a jest, it illustrates one problem of creating or accepting "fakelore," the problem of translating significance from one culture to another. At least one recreational group in America is named "Always on Sunday." Good thing they didn't name themselves "Hasamisu!"

AND NOW: The subsequent and continuing decline of international folk dancing has not diminished the popularity of Misirlou as Greeks around the world embrace it as their own, providing an example of the phenomenon that folk dancers legitimize with the label "reverse osmosis." Lest you fret further for the future fortunes of faux Kritiokos, know that also Eurythmics teachers and Surfers preserve it:

[quote] I taught some folk dances at a summer program for eurythmics teachers [...] Of course we had to do Miserlou and they told me how the dance had come to be. [...] the Beach Boys recorded a version of Miserlou (instrumental only). It's on their Surfin' USA album. It's a bit faster than the Miserlou I'm used to - obviously I need to go back and dance the original Kritikos/Syrtos Haniotikos to it. [quote]

What's Eurythmics? Well, it's obviously no kin to Eugenics else we might not have Misirlou/Never On Sunday/Hasamisu to dance. Quoting Jere Paulmeno: "I encourage folk dancers to dance haniotiko syrto to its native music. The traditional music of Crete is beautiful in its own right, thrilling to dance to, and requires no foreign substitution."

We had danced Misirlou and Never On Sunday/Hasamisu for some years when George Lowrey presented a rather different dance (resembling the Greek Slow Hasapiko) to Never On Sunday at the 1967 Texas Camp. Quoting George's directions: "This particular version probably originated in California." And Brunhilde? Art Hurst cites the Carnegie-Mellon Alumni News of June, 1980: "Mrs. [Brunhilde E.] Dorsch retired in May after 42 years with Duquesne University's School of Music."

I was curious about composer Nicholas Roubanis. A little research uncovered some of his writings: approximately 8 works on Greek liturgical music, a Rumba medley arrangement of Quie'reme mucho, Be'same mucho, and Misirlou, and music and Greek lyrics for Misirlou as a Beguine, the lyrics of which follow.

Jacob B, a good summary of the Dance aspect. I remain curious about the version sung in the Kantikas folder of the "Index of Cultura and Civilizacion, Sefardi (Sephardic)/Musica," linked in my post of 07 Jan 04, 06:46 PM (above), and the claims about it being an old Lebanese, Sephardic, Hasidic song.

So far we've seen lots of references to the Americanized version of Roubanis (which misses some of the details I am familiar with, at least listening to the Mandolirium version), but little to indicate provenance beyond that. Normally that would provide corroboration for the claims that Roubanis wrote it. But I still doubt that. And nobody has explained the existence of an early Sephardic version, according to Q's link (which version, by the way, DOES have the details I remember, which rather causes me to think that Roubanis SIMPLIFIED the original for western tastes as part of his adaptation). The Greeks would never use Misirlu for a circle dance, by the way - we would consider it inappropriate, too "Arabic" for that. As somebody mentioned, the rhythm is the beguin, and the Greeks would (do!) use it for facing-pair freestyle dance, which we have copied from the Arabic countries via Turkey. The name "Misirlu" gives conflicting clues: "Misir"-unhappy-Latin root Supports the Sephardic theory. The ending "lu" however is the Turkish "li" (without the dot over the "i"), that commonly turns a noun to an adjective ("misery" to "miserable"). Listening to the tune, I would classify it as "Mediterranean folk"; could be Arabic (Lebanese, Maroccan, Egyptian) or Hasidic/ Sepharding. Almost certainly not Greek (I would bet money on that actually). But it appeals to the peoples of all the Mediterranean countries (even Southern French and Italian, though they would deem it more "exotic"). Me, I just like it...and remember times in my misspent youth humming it with friends on deserted beaches during the magic hour between evening and night.

I think the Sephardic thing is just Miserlou played as an Arabic Rhumba to fit in with the band's particular orientation, rather than a tradtional version of the tune--it certainly is not the way that a Greek band would play it--again, the link to the folk dance history explains that the music was chosen to go with a dance that was basically a Kritikos because they didn't have any piano music(back when folkdancers didn't dance to recordings1)--Kritikos is, more or less, Syrtos, which is a circle dance--

Here are transliterated greek lyrics from another page at the Touchstone link that Q provided above, though with no source, and, since I don't know greek, I have no idea how they relate to the English and Spanish words:

M. Ted's version is the one that I used to sing, but that Sephardic mp3 - is the man singing quarter tones sometimes or does he have suspect pitching? This is not a derogatory question, I know that "Persian" musicians use saad notes that don't conform to western tuning, and I know that Georgians and others sing scales that don't match up with western ones, so can someone advise, please?

A link to a site explaining, in sound, the different scales/tunings around the world would be most excellent.

Steve learnt it whilst in Egypt with the army. He learnt it whilst playing for belly dancers so it has that Arabic/flamenco beat. (Boom-chacka-chacka-boom chack. Boom chacka-chacka-boom-chack-boom-chack) Sorry for the nuemonic above. That is the way I hear it. In the second part (after the full stop) the two boom-chack, boom-chack is where the dancer actually moves/steps forward. Up until Steve's recent tracheotomy he always sang it in Greek as on his album "Journey into the sun." Keep singing/playing it. It is truely one of my favourite pieces to play!

I think the name of the rhythm you are playing is Chiftitelli--which is one of the main rhythms used for bellydancing--The other main one is oten called Baladi by Bellydancers, but Middle Eastern musicians tend to call it Masmoudi or Maqsoum, but it starts with two strong Dum beats-- The official sounds that are used to describe the drum patterns are Dum, Te and Ka, as in "Dum teka teka teka Dum Teka Dum".

There are lots of websites with Middle Eastern rhythms written out this way, with the idea that it is a great way to break them down--but they always seem a bit ambiguous--meaning that you can't figure out the beat unless you know it to begin with--

You asked for "A link to a site explaining, in sound, the different scales/tunings around the world would be most excellent. " That's kind of a lot to ask for--for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that there are so many of them--Assuming that you are interested only in comparing Middle Eastern to Western stuff-even your Middle Eastern Singing class may not help you much--Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Greek/Armenian music each use completely different pitch systems--so the same song, with the same notes, would have different pitches, depending on who was playing it--

UCLA used to have an Ethnomusicology site with recordngs of an Arabic oud player playing seven or eight different makams, which would give you a little to chew on, but I haven't been able to find it--

So, from Turkey, I have a recording called Los Pasaros Sefaradis, & it includes a version of Miserlou in Ladino. Are there any links to Ladino lyrics, as I can't quite get all the words from the recording?

There are lots of versions of this tune on the Web. The following is one of the simpler, and will appeal to jaded Celtic instrument players. The adventurous will find the more authentic versions courtesy of JC's TuneFinder using the search string of 'MISIRLOU'. There's an Armenian version where the second part changes to 7/8 plus a third part as well.

Guest abalone, within the last month, the Sephardic website which had hundreds of Ladino songs and much scholarly discussion seems to have disappeared. I downloaded their "Miserlou" but there was no printed lyric or translation. The site also had many versions of Don Gato, whiich also entered Sephardic traditional song. I hope the site comes back. It is still listed in Google. The Univ. California at Davis also seems to be unavailable, so the loss may be temporary. The basic website was www.sephardifolklit.org.

I would simply like to add a note about Mrs. Brunhilde Eilers Dorsch. I had the good fortune to receive both my Bachelor of Science Degree in Music Education(1977) and my Master of Music degree in Composition (1979) at the Duquesne University School of Music, and was a Eurythmics student of Mrs. Dorsch. She taught there from 1938 to 1980, and was also the moderator of the Music Educators' National Conference Student Chapter # 159, of which I was President from 1975-77. This, I had the excellent opportunity to work closely with Mrs. Dorsch, who was a great professor, and an excellent individual. She taught ALL of us the "Miserlou," and did so with great gusto and pride. I was present at her retirement celebration in 1980, and she ended that celebration with one last great snaking dance of the Miserlou with all of us who were present. She was agile to the last. After retirement, it is my understanding that she moved to Texas near her son. I believe she may have passed away, since I see that the DAlcroze Society rightly has a memorial scholarship in her honor. She made the Miserlou a happily unforgettable part of each of her students' lives. Dr. Eugene Michael Dangelo, Music Educator, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

With much interest I read your investigations that contribute to the knowledge about the song "Misirlou", but as a Turcology student I can tell you immediatly that the word Misirli consists of two elements: Misir (=Egypt)and -li which is indeed, like "El Greko" remarked, the Turkish suffix that can turn a noun into an adjective, so the meaning of the whole word must be: Egyptian (man/woman)!

This thread epitomizes what mudcat is all about at its best. Thank you.

Dum question: I have a wonderful piece of Azeri music from the 50's called "Azerbaiyan Mugam" by Fikret Amirof. I did some web searching and found that mugam was a music form. My question: Is "mugam" related to "makam" as a similar form of music?

The Azeris are an Islamic non-Arab people, who used to be one of the SSRs and are now independent.

Misr indeed is an Arabic name for the region of Egypt, hence the frequent translation as Egyptian girl. The tune, converted to a dance by the Greeks, is known in Arabic, Jewish, Sephardic Spanish and other languages of the Mediterranean area, but its exact place of origin, age and original intent of the name Misirlu (Misirli, Misrli, etc.) is not exactly clear.

The MIT Folk Dance Club Songbook, courtesy of a Brandeis Univ. web posting, has a translation of the transliterated Greek words, posted far above (first line Misirlu mu i glika su i matya). Extremely bad translation, but mostly understandable:

This all takes me back to my junior high PE classes (c. 1966), where we learned the dance. But no one has mentioned the "tradition" (spurious, no doubt) we were told of its origin: that sometime in antiquity, a city was captured, and rather than submit to their conquerors, the women of the city danced "Misirlou" hand in hand off the top of the city's wall, committing mass suicide. Does anyone know how that story got started, or when? I don't think it was original with our gym teacher! Was there perhaps a movie scene that used the music?

There is a Greek song called "Ehe Jia Kaimene Kosme", which, roughly translated is, "I bid fairwell to the poor world" it is also known as "The Zalago's Dance"--it is traditionally held to be the song that about 60 women from a place called Souli sang as they, with babes in arms, jumped off Mt. Zalago--this happened in 1803, because they wanted to avoid being enslaved by the Turks--It isn't clear if they were actually dancing when they did this, or if the song was simply used for a dance--

I have often heard folk dance instructors tell this story in association with Miserlou--even when they knew it wasn't true, simply because it was a good story. As far as that goes, I am not really clear on whether this is a true story or a legend--I get curious about it from time to time, and have poked around, but never been able to find out any more about it--

Descending the hill of Zermi we came in less than an hour to the vale of Tervitziana, through which the river of Suli flows ere, "previously making many turns and meanders as if unwilling to enter such a gloomy passage," it plunges into the gorge of Suli. We crossed the stream, and began the ascent on the right of the cliffs, by narrow and precipitous paths leading to a point of great height, from which the difficult pass of the Suliote glen commences.

From the precipices impending over this ravine; it is related that the Suliote women threw their children, when the contest for their liberty had come to an end.

As some notice of the Suliote history may be desirable, I and as much matter as is necessary to illustrate the subject. The mountain of Suli may be conjectured to have been occupied by Albanians about the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and when the greater part of the surrounding country lapsed to the Mohammedan faith, the race of hardy mountaineers adhered firmly to Christianity.

During the eighteenth century, the Suliotes carried on a predatory warfare with the surrounding territories of Margariti, Paramithia, &c., but when Ali Pasha, under pretext of reducing disaffected districts to the obedience due to the Sultan, had subdued all the surrounding tribes, the inhabitants of Suli found that he was an enemy, determined either by craft or force to disposses them of their ancestral inheritance. From 1788 to 1792, innumerable were the artifices of Ali to obtain possesion of this singular stronghold; in the latter year he made an attack on it, which nearly proved fatal to himself, while his army was defeated with great slaughter. In 1798, after six years of bribery and skirmishing, a portion of the territory of Suli was gained by the Mohammedans, through treachery of some inhabitants, and thenceforward the accounts of the protracted siege of this devoted people is a series of remarkable exploits and resolute defence, by Suliotes of both sexes, seldom paralleled in history.

Every foot of the tremendous passes leading to Suli was contested in blood ere the besieger gained firm footing; and after he had done so, the rock held out an incredible period, untill famine and treachery worked out the downfall of this unfortunate people.

Then in 1803, many escaped by passing through the enemy«s camp, many by paths unknown to their pursuers; numbers fled to the adjancent rocks of Zalongo and Seltzo; others destroyed themselves, together with the enemy, by gunpowder, or in a last struggle; or threw themselves into the Acheron, or from precipices. Those of this brave people who ultimately escaped to Parga, crossed over to Korfu, and thence entered to the service of Russia an France. Many since the days of Greek independence, have returned to various part of Epiris, or Greece, but they have no longer a country or a name, and the warlike tribe who, at the height of their power, formed a confederacy of sixty-six villages, may now be said to be extinct.

Edward Lear is prized by collectors of books about travels; his writing is clear and readable almost 150 years after his travels. He is best known today for his "Nonsense Songs and Stories," still in print. In that volume is a poem to which Lear set music called "The Pelicans." I have thought about posting it in Mudcat. First verse and chorus: King and Queen of the Pelicans we; No other birds so grand we see! None but we have feet like fins! With lovely leathery throats and chins!

Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee! We think no birds so happy as we! Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill! We think so then, and we thought so still!

I have a Ladino version of "Miserlu" which I recorded from a Sephardic site sometime ago. Not fully Spanish. I believe that it came from a recording of kantikas, Djudeo-Espanyol songs, but I have been unable to relocate the album from which the song came. Any ideas would be appreciated.